It is known to use manipulation grippers for material handling with gripping pressure supplied by springs, hydraulic pressure or the like. Such grippers are not suitable for handling thin sheets of material because they exert too much force.
Handling thin sheets is often done with a vacuum gripper, but vacuum devices only work with solid sheets, not with perforated ones, because perforations prevent a vacuum from being maintained.
The problem addressed by this invention is that of picking up, moving and disengaging a thin, fragile sheet having too many perforations for vacuum devices to be used.